ARISTOTLE'S PRIOR AND POSTERIOR ANALYTICS

PREFACEIT is one hundred and five years since Waitz's edition of theOrganon was published, and a commentator writing now has at hisdisposal a good deal that Waitz had not. The Berlin Academy hasfurnished him with a good text of the ancient Greek commentators.Heinrich Maier's Die Syllogistik des Aristoteles supplied whatamounts to a full commentary on the Prior A nalytics. ProfessorFriedrich Solmsen has given us an original and challenging theoryof the relation between the Prior A nalytics and the Posterior.Albrecht Becker has written a very acute book on the Aristoteliantheory of the problematic syllogism. Other books, and articles toonumerous to be mentioned here, have added their quota of commentand suggestion. Among older books we have Zabarella's finecommentary on the Posterior Analytics, which Waitz seems not tohave studied, and Pacius' commentary on the Organon, whichWaitz studied less than it deserved.In editing the text, I have concentrated on the five oldest Greekmanuscripts-Urbinas 35 (A), Marcianus 201 (B), Coislinianus 330(C), Laurentianus 72.5 (d), and Ambrosianus 490 (olim L 93) (n).Of these I have collated the last (which has been unduly neglected)throughout in the original, and the third throughout in a photograph.With regard to A, B, and d, I have studied in the originalall the passages in which Waitz's report was obscure, and all thosein which corruption might be suspected and it might be hoped thata new collation would bring new light. Mr. L. Minio has been goodenough to lend me his report on the Greek text presupposed bytwo Syriac translations some centuries older than any of our Greekmanuscripts of the Analytics, and a comparison of these with theGreek manuscripts has yielded interesting results; I wish to recordmy sincere thanks to him for his help, as well as to the librariansof the Bibliotheque Nationale, and of the Vatican, Marcian,Laurentian, and Ambrosian libraries.W.D.R.